Another hand from my horrible 7-stud session. Here again - should I have gotten away?

My opponent in this hand is very loose and an aggressive player. He will keep raising with nothing - especially when a scare card hits. For example, I had one hand against him where I was bluffing eights and he raised me on the river (and I called because of the size of the pot) - he showed sevens...

On third, I've got JT (Q) with 2 diamonds. No other diamonds are out, and there is a single king and a single nine out My opponent in this hand is showing the . The bring in has the .

I limp in on 3rd and the only other player in other than the bring in is my opponent. On fourth, I pick up the ; the bring-in gets the and the villain has .

I lead out and only the villain calls.

On fifth, I get my fourth diamond with the and my opponent shows the . I lead out, he raises, I reraise and he caps. My downfall right here is that I have no clue where I am. While I am drawing to what I think is the nut hand - he could have trips, he could have 2 pair - he could have aces in the hole.

On sixth, I pick up a king (giving me an open-ended straight draw in addition to my flush draw) and he pairs his doorcard 6. He bets and I call.

On the river, I get the to give me the broadway straight. We cap it - he shows threes full and takes the pot. BLECH!

Comments? Suggestions? Small tactical nuclear devices?

When someone is willing to cap it on 5th street you really should start to suspect trips even if (or especially if) they have a non threatening board. He has a 6J3 showing and caps it off He may be loose aggressive but I am still going to slow way down here. After he pairs his doorcard on 6th I think you ought to be in at most check call mode even if you make your hand on 7th.

Another thing, why did you limp with this hand. You have three overcards to the board if the K folds in front of you as well as straight and flush potentials. Raise this hand on third, don't let some shit hand slip in there for cheap.

On the other hand where you had 899 you should have raised there as well as you have a pair higher than anything showing, punish those limpers and make others behind you pay the full price for entering.

Part of the reason I am limping is because I am still learning Stud - admittedly, I just don't know which are the hands I should be raising with. What I find myself doing, more often than not, is raising when I have an ace doorcard or when I have the highest doorcard (folded or not). In this case, with two of my straight outs already gone - I didn't think a raise was warranted - but for high card value - I could definitely see the point there.

Also, you are completely right about non-threatening boards. It is something I should start giving respect to. Unfortunately, I find I am also not giving respect to threatening boards - so maybe I just have a respect problem...

Ok, just getting around to some of these and I have a thought on this one in particular.

Never, ever, ever, ignore someone pairing their door card. It almost always means they have trips. Maybe not almost always, but most of the time always. At the very least they are gonna have 2 pair, assuming they have a pocket pair.

I think 9 of the last 10 times I lost to a boat in stud the guy had paired his doorcard.